Two children were waiting for the bus at the hospital entrance. The previous two buses were too crowded, so Jiao Yuan decided to wait for a less crowded one.
There were many buses running from the hospital to the East Gate of Chuhua University, so there was no need to squeeze onto a bus with so many people. At this time, many people on the buses were getting off work. Chuhua City was populous, yet without a subway, so the buses were always particularly crowded during rush hours.
Today, Jiao Yuan was very silent. Usually, while waiting for the bus, he couldn't help but kick the nearby tree, pick at an advertisement stuck on the electricity pole, or talk to someone nearby. But now, he just stood there quietly, holding the hand of Gu Youzi, a second grader, and occasionally whispering to her to wait for the next bus whenever a too-full bus arrived.
Zheng Tan stayed inside Jiao Yuan's backpack, with the zipper slightly open to stick his head out and breathe, avoiding suffocation. However, staying in the backpack was never comfortable. Zheng Tan wanted to poke his head out, but with the crowd and noise, to avoid unnecessary trouble, he stayed inside the backpack.
Jiao Yuan's backpack smelt of tea eggs; apparently, the boy had bought some from the cafeteria in the morning to avoid getting hungry after class.
After about fifteen minutes, a bus that wasn't too crowded arrived. Jiao Yuan led Gu Youzi onto the bus. Just as someone got off and freed up a seat, Jiao Yuan thanked the person, then he and Gu Youzi shared the seat, placing the backpack with Zheng Tan on it on their lap.
It was only a two-stop ride to the back gate of Chuhua University, but getting to the gate near the East Garden required two more stops. It was best to be able to sit.
Zheng Tan felt a bit stuffy inside the backpack, so he put his nose near the zipper to breathe. The bus stopped frequently, sometimes at stops and sometimes at traffic lights, making Zheng Tan feel sleepy.
However, it didn't take long before Zheng Tan felt a pain in his whiskers.
Looking through the gap in the zipper, he saw a mother sitting in front with a child in her arms, facing the people sitting at the back. The child probably saw a bit of Zheng Tan's black nose and a few whiskers poking out from the gap and reached out to tug at them.
After feeling the pain, Zheng Tan retracted his whiskers inside the backpack.
"Cat... fur..." The child spoke unevenly. Seeing the few cat whiskers that had just been grabbed retract into the backpack, he pointed at Jiao Yuan's backpack and exclaimed.
The somewhat distracted Jiao Yuan and Gu Youzi came back to their senses. Not knowing what had just happened, they saw the child pointing at the backpack and thought they had been discovered, so they were a bit nervous. Although there were no signs on the bus prohibiting pets, most people opposed bringing pets on the bus.
Fortunately, no one else had noticed Zheng Tan's briefly exposed whiskers. The lighting inside the bus was poor, and, coupled with people being tired from work and resting, no one paid attention. The child's mother thought her child had seen a black cat charm hanging from someone else's backpack and laughed off the child's comments.
Upon reaching the East Garden stop, the two children hurriedly got off the bus, fearing discovery; after all, they were just children and didn't have the thick skins of adults.
After entering the East Gate, Zheng Tan jumped out of the backpack, relieved to breathe fresh air.
By then, the sky had darkened, and the streetlights were on. The faint sound of a song at the end of a program broadcasted in the school could be heard through the speakers. Gusts of wind brought the rustling sound of leaves rubbing against each other and the sound of leaves falling.
Zheng Tan shivered, ran a few steps, climbed up a tree, then slid down to warm himself up with some activity.
Seeing Zheng Tan acting this way, Jiao Yuan and Gu Youzi, who had been feeling heavy all day, also relaxed a little. There were people out for a walk around them, people driving home from work; it wasn't quiet, and the barking of a few dogs could be heard from the direction of the East Garden.
Arriving in front of their building, Jiao Yuan swiped the access card, and Zheng Tan ran in first. The buildings in the East Family Courtyard were old, without automatic voice-activated lights, and the residents were used to this. The lights on the first three floors were on, but those on the fourth and fifth were off—the parrot's family on the fourth floor wasn't home, probably on a business trip again, and Qu Xiangyang on the fifth hardly left his apartment once a week, so no one turned on the lights. Zheng Tan went up first to turn on the lights to avoid the children stumbling in the stairway.
For others, the unlit staircases were pitch black, but for Zheng Tan, or rather, for a cat, such darkness was nothing.
He jumped up to switch on the fourth floor, then went up to turn on the fifth before running downstairs just as the two children were reaching the second floor.
By the fourth floor, the children finally understood why their cat had run ahead—it had turned the lights on before they entered the building, as they hadn't seen the fourth and fifth floor lights on from outside.
"Heitan is really smart!" Jiao Yuan said with a smile.
It was the first time he had smiled since he found out about Jiao Ma's incident.
"Mhm!" Gu Youzi was characteristically terse as usual.
Zheng Tan felt annoyed; what was so praiseworthy about such a trivial matter?
"However, Dad said that cats that are too clever attract attention, and some things need not be shared with outsiders. So just keep what happened just now within the family, and don't talk about it outside," Jiao Yuan added.
"I understand." Gu Youzi nodded, she never talked. She had seen a kid in her class who used to bring Barbie dolls her parents bought her to school to show off. It wasn't long before one of the dolls was found stomped flat and filthy in the trash can, reportedly out of jealousy. Naturally, having their cat pick them up from school every day was already eye-catching enough; there was no need to add more to it. Maybe this situation was similar, so she shouldn't talk too much?
After getting home, Jiao Yuan called his father to tell him that he and his sister had safely returned. While he was still on the phone, Ah Huang's owner, who Jiao Yuan called "Aunt Ling," came over with a bag of cakes and a bottle of milk, worried about the children being hungry and considering it for breakfast tomorrow.
Since their own house also had visiting relatives' children, Aunt Ling couldn't stay over, and Jiao Yuan and his sister insisted on staying at their home. Aunt Ling had prepared bath water for them, and only left after the kids had bathed and gone to bed.
Zheng Tan lay next to Gu Youzi, and after she fell asleep, he went to check on Jiao Yuan's room. The little brat wasn't asleep yet. Zheng Tan stayed by his side for a while, and after making sure he had fallen asleep, Zheng Tan went out to the balcony.
When he couldn't sleep at night, Zheng Tan liked to stay on the balcony, enjoying the breeze and the air. This environment was especially suitable for reflecting on life, no, it should be reflecting on this damned cat life.
As the night grew deeper, the lights in each home in the Family Courtyard gradually went out, and the surroundings grew silent, devoid of television noises and conversation.
The light in the house next door, where Qu Xiangyang the recluse lived, remained on; he wouldn't go to sleep until between one and two in the morning.
Tonight, Zheng Tan was completely sleepless and just sat on the balcony, occasionally twitching his ears to listen to the noises in the kids' rooms; Zheng Tan was relieved that they were sleeping soundly and not having nightmares.
Looking down from the fifth floor, the orange lights along the courtyard road were particularly conspicuous. Looking further out, numerous orange light spots flickered among the swaying trees. After the wind calmed, the flickering lights in the trees also stilled. Most of the street lights at the university were orange, and wherever there were these orange lights, roads followed.
It is said that orange street lights offer the safest illumination because their long wavelengths allow them to be seen from far away. Under the orange light, cars driving in front could be seen clearly. They were also softer, creating a comfortable feeling for the eyes and preventing the drivers' eyes from tiring easily, ensuring a safe journey.
Zheng Tan yawned—it was really not early anymore. Staying a few more hours, people might start their morning exercises, and even Qu Xiangyang next door had already gone to bed.
Zheng Tan turned around, preparing to head back to the living room to sleep on the couch, where he could still look after the kids. Just as he lifted his foot, he heard the muffled sound of wooden tags clashing downstairs.
Zheng Tan paused—it was the sound of the wind chime hanging on the bedroom door near the balcony in Big Fatty's house downstairs. At first glance, it was just an ordinary wind chime. For outsiders, the only notable feature was that instead of metal or shells that make crispy sounds, it had wooden tags hanging.
Zheng Tan had never paid attention before, but once, when Big Fatty was inspected by Wei Leng's old superior who was in military attire, he learned of the wooden wind chime's purpose—as a warning.
That wooden tag wind chime would not sound with just a breeze; it would only make noise if someone struck the hanging wooden tags, and each tag made a different sound when hit.
Hearing the sound of the wooden tags, Zheng Tan glanced downstairs. With that look, Zheng Tan spotted two "rats."
Although those two people were hiding in the shadows, they couldn't escape Zheng Tan's vision. Even if he couldn't see them very clearly or make out their faces, capturing their figures was still possible.
At the end of September, a burglary had occurred in the East Residential Area. As a result, two dogs were added to the courtyard, and since then, no thefts had occurred in the East Family Courtyard.
Seeing the cooperation and behavior of these two, they didn't seem like first-timers, and they appeared quite familiar with the old buildings' layout in the Family Courtyard and somewhat knowledgeable about the residents. So, these two might indeed be the culprits from the previous theft.
Having stayed low for over a month, could these two thieves finally not hold back anymore?
Unexpectedly, the thieves chose their own building this time. Could their target be their own home? Definitely not the fourth floor; the parrot "General"'s home was quite special, as it had a rare parrot, the balcony was fenced, and the door replaced, well-protected and hard to break into. The other household on the fourth floor was almost always vacant, likely with nothing of value.
This time, who would be the two "rats'' target? If it was their own home...
Zheng Tan squinted his eyes and flexed his paws, extending his sharp claws then retracting them.
I can't speak, I can't boil water, I have to hide in a backpack to ride the bus, but seriously, can I not handle you guys?!
Meanwhile, those two people standing in the shadow downstairs of Building B in the East Family Courtyard had no idea that at a window on the first floor, a cat was squatting in the dark watching them, and on the fifth-floor balcony, another black cat was also keeping a vigilant eye on their every move.